How Poor Posture Causes Chronic Pain

Here’s the deal. Your bad posture has been causing you most of your pain. It’s harsh to hear it, but it’s true.

A poor posture can strain the soft tissues i.e. the ligaments, tendons, and the muscles in and around your neck. Physical therapists often suggest chronic neck pain treatment for pain caused due to bad posture.

There’s something called a “neutral position”. When you are in this position,

• your ears are exactly above your shoulders
• your shoulders are pulled back and
• your chest is open

The weight of your head gets equally divided reducing the stress that your neck would generally have to bear.

But when your neck stays in a position where it is farther in front of the shoulders, the neck slants forward too.

Here’s what happens in such situations:

1. The Muscles are Overloaded

Your muscles will try to balance the load that gravity puts on your forward-tilted head. When your muscles try too hard to balance your head on your neck, it causes a lot of strain. Due to this, the muscles become prone to chronic pain.

2. Pain Builds-up on the Cervical Spine

Since you’ve decided your head will lean forward, your neck will have to support an increased amount of weight. For every inch that your head doesn’t align with your shoulders, the load on your neck and back gets doubled or tripled. Clinics nowadays provide opioid pain management therapies for the pain that becomes unbearable.

3. Hyperflexion and Hyperextension

These are some heavy words, right? To simplify these terms:

Hyperflexion happens when the position of your head is too forward for your lower cervical spine to handle.

When the upper cervical spine goes into Hyperextension, the brain knows it needs to keep your head straight up and your eyes looking ahead.

These opposite responses cause the length of the spinal canal to increase. With an increased distance, that starts from the base of the skull to the base of the neck, the nerves in and around this area stretch, causing intense pain.

Since the tilting of the head has become a natural habit, doctors may suggest opioid therapy for chronic pain.

4. A Hunched Upper back

At some point in life, you all must have seen someone with a hunched back. This happens because your head is continually leaning forward, causing the shoulders and the upper back to follow the pattern.

The next time you realize your head is leaning forward, make sure you improve your posture. If you continue with the habits you live with now, there might be irreversible consequences and you might be put in a situation where you desperately need chronic neck pain treatment.

If you’re already at the stage where you feel like you need to get medical attention due to bad posture, then you should contact physical therapists in Atlanta.

Kroll Care aims at delivering personalized care to all its patients. With a team of experts, you can ensure accurate diagnostics and treatment is delivered to you. Some of the most advanced treatments are made available which are executed with compassion. Get in touch with the team today to know more about opioid therapy for chronic pain.